Dow Jones sheds 800 points as pandemic fears grip Wall Street

All of the Dow's 30 blue-chip members, as well as the 11 major S&P sectors were in the red. Technology stocks dropped 3.1% and were the biggest drag on the benchmark index. Defensive utilities and real estate posted the smallest declines.

By: Reuters

February 24, 2020 11:09 PM IST

2 min read

Wall Street, Wall Street coronavirus, coronavirus Wall Street, Dow Jones, Wall Street Dow Jones, US stock markets, US markets, World markets, Indian Express

<div class="Xg"> <div class="sh"> <div class="lqfOD lGboVb"> <div class="fcpPib"> <div id=":2f.cv" class="hh"> <div class="Xg"> <div class="sh B4SsQb"> <div class="Ih Uf RP an"> <div id=":2t.sc" class="Eg a-E"> <div id=":2t.cn" class="hN so Fj Ij"> <div id=":2t.hw" class="fkp8p"> <div id=":3p.mw" class="tk TmwRj Sn GjkoZd"> <div id=":3p.ma" class="Tn"> <div class="KL"> <div class="PD IF"> <div id=":3p.co" class="JL"> <div id=":3t.ma" class="Mu SP" data-tooltip="February 24, 2020 at 10:43:35 PM UTC+5:30"> Apple Inc slid 3.5% as data showed sales of smartphones in China tumbled by more than a third in January.

The Dow Jones Industrials shed 800 points on Monday as investors scurried to safer assets after a sharp rise in coronavirus cases outside China fueled fears of a bigger impact to global growth.

Gold rose to a seven-year high and the inversion between the 3-month and 10-year U.S. Treasury yields deepened as a rise in cases in Iran, Italy and South Korea over the weekend fanned fears of a pandemic. An inversion of the curve is a classic recession signal.

All of the Dow’s 30 blue-chip members, as well as the 11 major S&P sectors were in the red. Technology stocks dropped 3.1% and were the biggest drag on the benchmark index. Defensive utilities and real estate posted the smallest declines.

Apple Inc slid 3.5% as data showed sales of smartphones in China tumbled by more than a third in January.

Last week, Wall Street’s main indexes notched record highs, partly on optimism that the global economy would be able to snap back after an initial hit, supported by central banks.

“Some people are re-assessing the extent to which China is being damaged by the spread of the virus and, more broadly, whether other parts of world will get contagion effects of that,” said Nitesh Shah, director of research at WisdomTree.

Chipmakers, which heavily rely on China for revenue, were among the worst performers, with the Philadelphia SE Semiconductor index down 4.2%.
Interest rate-sensitive banks shed 2.7%, while the CBOE Volatility Index, a barometer of expected near-term market volatility, jumped to a six-month high.

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